Connecting the environment of the ancient past with the natural and cultural history of yesterday and today.

Curious about the fossil beds? Take a Virtual Tour!

View of the fossil beds from the Interpretive
Center Deck

Sculpted limestone along the river's edge

What Is Limestone?

Limestone is a type of sedimentary
rock made of calcium carbonate. Limestone can be composed of
skeletal remains of organisms, chemically precipitated from
sea water that is super-saturated with calcium carbonate or
a combination of both.

The limestone at the Falls of the
Ohio is composed of skeletal remains from countless numbers
of corals, stromatoporoid sponges, echinoderms, brachiopods,
mollusks, arthropods, and microscopic organisms.

It is called the Jeffersonville Limestone
(after the city of Jeffersonville which was originally at the
upper end of the Falls) and dates from the latest Early Devonian to MiddleDevonian. (Geologists
call this Emsian and Eifelian Age - 390 to about 380 million
years ago).